Ritual / soyini ayanna forde

She cuts up more scotch bonnets
rubs it in her eyes
just to feel the burn.
Catches the tears in a deep calabash, the color of soil.

Rubs it in her eyes
yearns for clarity through pain.
Catches the tears in a deep calabash, the color of soil.
Sips from it, bitter saltiness. Spits.

Yearns for clarity through pain.
Drops pepper seeds like coin wishes inside the tears.
Sips from it, bitter saltiness. Spits.
She thinks there are few ways to hurt more than this.

Drops pepper seeds like coin wishes inside the tears.
Sips from it, bitter saltiness. Spits.
She thinks there are few ways to hurt more than this.
She cuts up more scotch bonnets

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Trinidadian Soyini Ayanna Forde enjoys hot cups of tea, pop culture, branches of feminist theory, huge earrings, and West Indianness. She has been published in racialicious, Carnival Junction, Caribbean Axis and The Caribbean Writer. She is a graduate of Barry University and the Stonecoast MFA program.